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09 april 2024, Flor Linckens
The layered mosaics of Soetkin Verslype
Through The Window, Base-Alpha Gallery
Until 27 April, Base-Alpha Gallery in Antwerp is presenting a solo exhibition of Soetkin Verslype. Her collage-like works are distinctly non-narrative and deliberately eschew the depiction of human figures, focusing instead on objects commonly linked with human presence.
Verslype shines a spotlight on the everyday, finding beauty in the mundane and the overlooked. Her artistic expressions bring life to ordinary scenes — be it a terrace, a whimsical shop window full of wigs, a vase of flowers caught between bloom and wilt, or a table richly arrayed with dishes. These scenes are often rooted in memories or the recording of memories: a drawing or a photograph. They are further enriched by her travels to continents like Africa and South America.
Soetkin Verslype, Wigs, 2023, Base-Alpha Gallery
Verslype’s style is characterised by a combination of playfulness and comforting familiarity, yet it doesn’t shy away from themes of vulnerability and alienation, enhanced by her use of non-naturalistic colours. In some cases, her colour use is monochromatic, other times she opts for more contrasting or inverted colours. The result is a series of paintings that appear both analytical and fragmented, resembling abstract mosaics or puzzles, arranged with rhythmic precision. Within her compositions, foreground and background seamlessly merge, resulting in a willfully distorted perspective.
Verslype: “I use colour and play with the ways I can translate my three-dimensional environment to a flat surface to create ambiguous situations that make everyday sceneries look atypical and strange. I’m flattening what isn’t flat and combining what should be separate by using colour combinations that bring different materials together. This technique allows me to play with positive and negative forms, creating interactions between shapes that in reality could be at a large distance from each other. The sky can now relate to a cup in a very different way, or a shoe to a flower.”
Soetkin Verslype, Closed, 2022, Base-Alpha Gallery
After completing her master's at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Verslype continued to explore the use of various materials and techniques, favouring an instinctive approach. Gouache, with its matte finish and swift drying properties, remains her medium of choice. Its water-soluble nature does present a challenge as new layers reactivate the previous layers, rendering the proces of overpainting more complex, which in turn demands swift and intuitive decision-making, preventing her from being blinded by excessive analysis or perfectionism.
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Soetkin Verslype, Camping Chairs, 2023, Base-Alpha Gallery
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